Mr. Sam Jones was born to a farm family in the New Bethlehem community in Gray’s Creek. This was a long time ago, on a Sunday morning in October.
How long ago? The year was 1916. The United States would not enter World War I until the following spring. The Spanish Flu, a global pandemic, would not arrive until the following year.
Jones did not stray far from farming or from Gray’s Creek. He spent his 107 years on this earth in the township that is part of Hope Mills. But family and friends can tell you the steady and kind Jones touched lives near and far.
He died on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. His birthday was Oct. 8, when he would have been 108.
I met Jones when he was only the tender age of 103. Sixty of his family members, church brothers and sisters, and friends helped him celebrate his birthday at Golden Corral on Skibo Road in Fayetteville.
Jones attributed his long life to obeying his parents when he was young. He told me: “I never did sass them.”
It was no doubt a reference to the Bible verse in Ephesians that says children who obey their parents will live well, and long.